Bridging the gap between South Africa’s first and second economies needs deliberate action, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told the Black Management Forum in Johannesburg on Friday.
”Bridging the gap needs deliberate steps. It won’t just sommer happen. The devastating effects of this phenomenon in our society can be addressed by policy makers and those who determine the flow of resources,” she said.
The second economy is in a close relationship with the first. It sells its labour to and provides a market for the first economy, and gives the nation its soul and identity.
”It’s quite fundamental that we need to be able to see ourselves through the eyes of the poor if we are to survive and live with integrity,” she said.
About one-third of the country’s population is ”desperately poor”.
”Between 14-million and 15-million people live in the second economy, and that is too many. At the same time, it is not insurmountable for us.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka said the biggest challenge to economic growth is a lack of skills and the large number of unemployed graduates.
She said micro enterprises need to be helped to become small businesses, with cash injections of between R10 000 and R250 000, in order to bridge the gap between the two economies.
”It is a challenge and we hope that the financial-services sector will be able to play a role in this regard.”
Instead of lashing out at the black middle class for its apathy and consumerism, as speakers had done on Thursday, Mlambo-Ngcuka hoped the present generation is aware of its social responsibilities.
”We all have had one leg in apartheid history and one leg in the new South Africa. That hopefully imposes particular responsibilities on you,” she said.
She called on the black middle class to work in cooperation with their white compatriots to make the country a better place.
Part of the country’s economic growth is the result of black middle-class spending. This section of the population needs to plough back money and resources into their communities, she said.
”People need to move from being consumers to being producers. There is work to be done there [in the townships]. Delivery is painfully slow.” — Sapa